'Battle Royale' Getting a 3D Conversion

Hollywood isn't the only place where studios want to take classic films and convert them to 3D in order to try and cash in on them all over again -- it appears as though Japan is now getting in on the act as well.

Screen Daily is reporting that Japanese studio Toei is set to re-release Kinji Fukasaku's controversial film Battle Royale, converting it to 3D for some truly unfathomable reason. The company reports that Fukasaku's son Kenta will oversee the conversion (Kinji passed away back in 2003) and that the film will be ready for market screenings this October and will make its Japanese debut in November.

The original was a sly commentary on Japanese culture featuring Takeshi Kitano and a group of delinquent kids sent to an isolated island where they engage in combat to the death. It's sort of Lord of the Flies crossed with Survivor and remains one of my favorite films of the first decade of the new millennium.

Kenta Fukasaku would direct a sequel, Battle Royale 2: Requiem, but it seems unlikely that we'll be seeing a 3D re-release of that film since it's a pretty dismal affair all the way around.